USA Hockey: Minnesota Mr. Hockey

Nick Leddy, a senior defenseman of the Eden Prairie Eagles, was named Minnesota High School's Mr. Hockey this year and was ranked 28th overall in McKeen's spring rankings. He's committed to play for the Minnesota Gopher's next fall and McKeen's director of scouting Max Giese filed this report on Leddy after he led Eden Prairie to a AA State Championship.

Nick Leddy (2009), D, Eden Prairie

Leddy is going to be this years' Jake Gardiner and will be a first-round pick because of his skating ability .. won the prestigious Mr. Hockey award this year as the best high school player in Minnesota .. one of the most pure skaters of the draft class and boasts multiple gears of acceleration .. moves gracefully with a powerful thrust in all-directions .. his dynamic lateral agility gives him multiple options on the point and his game is tailor made for the offensive side of the puck .. Leddy's backwards acceleration is also something to behold and he owns that extra gear to recover .. this dynamic skating ability allows him to proactively hold the blueline and extend the offensive attack .. senses and escapes pressure well and can also make that one last move before getting crunched to make the better play .. sees the ice and skates so well with the puck that he's a multi-zone threat capable of going end-to-end .. has deft hands .. surveys the ice quickly and makes an accurate first pass in the face of pressure .. a rover that can quarterback the point and also pinch into the opening seams to generate scoring opportunities .. needs to work on his pointshot .. as the season progressed, he became more astute about when to push the puck and when to exude patience with it .. is only average-sized at 5-foot-11 and 185 pounds, but getting stronger will be crucial to his development because he can get physically overmatched and will allow his man to get underneath him in coverage for a clear lane to the net .. despite his lack of strength, Leddy plays fairly physical and propels himself into opponents .. defensively, he trusts his anticipatory reads to pressure the opposition as they receive the puck to cut down their time and space immediately .. needs to tighten his gaps, but at times, his exuberance gets the best of him, as he needs to refine his body positioning and defense deep within his own zone.